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DZOE-TV
DZOE-TV, channel 11, was the first television property of ZOE Broadcasting Network. Bought from the Manila Broadcasting Company in the mid-1990s, it served throughout its history with programs that reflect ZOE as the broadcast arm of its corporate parent the Jesus Is Lord Church. The station is permanently closed. History Prior history The Channel 11 frequency, originally under the DWXI-TV call letters in Metro Manila, was granted to a joint venture between the leaders of two major Filipino religious movements, Mike Velarde (of the El Shaddai movement) and Eddie Villanueva (of the Jesus Is Lord Church). Disputes between the two leaders resulted in both parties wanting a full control of channel 11's stake. With the intervention of the Philippine Congress, Villanueva and JIL successfully won the rights to the station. His organization paid compensation to Velarde's broadcast company Delta Broadcasting System as completion of the deal. ZOE TV (1998-2005) On April 13, 1998, JIL launched its own TV channel ZOE TV. Its callsign and corporate entity were renamed to reflect the channel's existence. ZOE TV broadcast independently with religious and lifestyle programs, as well as an amount of infomercial blocks, serving as an alternative to major television networks that occupy the remainder of the VHF channel band. From its inception, ZOE occupies an office space, studio and master control equipment, and transmitter room at the Strata 2000 Building along the Pasig City section of Ortigas Center. In 1999, broadcast distribution company Enternet of Mr. Benito Araneta entered into a channel lease agreement with DZOE-TV, allowing the former to simulcast CNBC Asia during channel 11's daytime hours. Contract disputes would lead to the agreement ending in 2002 with Enternet subsequently filing a case against Villanueva and ZOE. The ZOE TV branding remained in use throughout its era. In 2001, ZOE TV became the first TV station to air the second EDSA Revolution that saw former president Joseph Estrada ousted by angered protesters due to various corruption allegations. From a 12 to 13-hour operation, the station reduced broadcast to just 9 hours per day in its final years of the brand. QTV/Q/GMA News TV (2005-2019) In April 2005, Citynet Network Marketing and Productions, Inc., a subsidiary of GMA Network, Inc., and ZOE TV entered to an agreement for Citynet leasing the entire TV airtime block of the station in exchange of upgrading ZOE TV's facilities and ZOE distributing its in-house programs to GMA Network's airtime. GMA has been developing a revival of its sister television network through Citynet after its last stint as an affiliate of Channel V in 1999 but closed down in 2001 due to financial problems. And although Citynet has its own sister station in Mega Manila through DWDB-TV channel 27 (launched in 1995 as the first UHF station in the market owned by a major broadcast network), while its regional stations are cleared for reactivation, the station's old transmitter was degraded and its signal could not reach to areas normally received by GMA's flagship DZBB-TV channel 7. The agreement was believed to be seen as GMA's only alternative at that time to make sure there will be no significant loss of household viewership in the market once the sister TV network is revived. On September 1, 2005, channel 11 quietly went off the air as GMA installed, upgraded and rehabilitated the transmitter and studio facilities of ZOE TV. At the same time, Channel 11's 40kW transmitter in Ortigas was decommissioned in favor of an upgraded 100kW transmitter facility purchased by GMA located at the GMA Tower of Power site in Brgy. Culiat, Quezon City, with ZOE maintaining the license and transmitter operations for the station (due to current ownership restrictions requiring only one station per broadcaster per frequency). On November 11, 2005, after a series of test broadcasts, GMA/Citynet finally handled master control operations of channel 11 and launched their new second TV network through ZOE TV. It started as an all-female lifestyle channel QTV (Quality TeleVision; later renamed as simply Q on March 18, 2007), then it was reformatted as news and public affairs channel GMA News TV on February 28, 2011. For 14 years, channel 11's latest brands are considered as joint ventures, with ZOE and Citynet working together to reach millions of households in different factors of operation. In exchange, ZOE's in-house programs are required to be aired on the both Q and GNTV every day before signing-off and after signing-on; GMA also airs these programs on weekends during off-peak times. Through the investment of GMA/Citynet, ZOE TV resumed its independent broadcasting via UHF Channel 33 in November 2006, which became its permanent frequency ever since. Termination of agreement; station's future uncertain (2019-present) On April 24, 2019, GMA/Citynet announced that it will terminate its blocktime agreement with ZOE Broadcasting by the end of May 2019. The split comes after the release of GMA's 2018 financial report which declared the increasing lease payments that the network contributes to ZOE for the past three years (from ₱899.89 million in 2016 to almost a billion pesos in 2018). Third-party sources reported that Channel 11 would simulcast ZOE's sister station DZOZ-DTV channel 33 after the termination of the agreement, but ZOE has no official statement yet on its future plans. GMA managed to extend GNTV's run on channel 11 until the planned conversion date of June 4. To facilitate this, GMA/Citynet and ZOE conducted the conversion into two stages: all of ZOE's in-house programs were pulled out from GMA and GNTV's programming lineup on June 3; then on June 4, as channel 11 is slated to shut off after the termination, GNTV Manila's intellectual unit (master control, sales, and employees) successfully transferred to the newly rehabilitated DWDB-TV for the remainder of the analog broadcast run. Engineers and technicians from ZOE missed the said shutoff notice of channel 11, which caused the cut off to be delayed until midnight of June 5. Digital television DZOE-TV began its presence on digital television through GMA's flagship DZBB-TV. The station's second digital subchannel is used to broadcast channel 11's programs. GMA Manila's digital signal began operating in 2013 on then-vacated UHF channel 27 (551.143 MHz). To continue GMA Manila's digital television broadcast after the termination announcement, DZBB-TV and its GNTV subchannel are reported to transfer to UHF channel 15 (479.143 MHz), which the National Telecommunications Commission, through a memorandum circular in 2016, authorized to operate as part of NTC's plans to license digital channels 14-20 for major TV broadcasts. In late May, GMA began trial simulcasts on the new channel 15 frequency, and became channel 7's sole digital channel in Mega Manila after the June 4 conversion. See also * GMA News TV * Q * GMA Network * ZOE Broadcasting Network